Sunday, July 10, 2011 (1:05 p.m.) – McCoy Stadium
Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (38-52, 5th(-14.5), North)
RHP Dylan Owen (4-4, 4.25)

Pawtucket Red Sox (49-41, T2nd(-3.5), North)
RHP Matt Fox (4-3, 4.92)

TODAY’S GAME: This afternoon, the Buffalo Bisons take on the Pawtucket Red Sox in the final of a two-game series at McCoy Stadium (1:05 p.m.). With a victory today, the Herd will earn its third two-game split of this roadtrip that also stopped at Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Today’s game also concludes the first half of the 2011 season with the annual All-Star break starting Monday. Buffalo’s next game is Thursday night against Rochester.

VS. THE RED SOX: The Bisons are 2-5 against the Red Sox this season, including an 0-3 mark at McCoy Stadium. The PawSox swept a two-game set from Buffalo at home, April 16-17. The Herd has just one victory in its last six games in Rhode Island, dating back to last season.

DEALIN’ DYLAN: RHP DYLAN OWEN will look for his third straight win today. The righty has allowed just two runs in each of his last four starts, including two runs on only one hit in six innings to defeat Syracuse on July 5. Owen has posted a 3.42ERA in his 10 previous starts this season and currently ranks second on the Bisons club with 52 strikeouts.

NO REST: RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN won’t get a break this week as the 24-year old rookie will represent the Bisons at the Triple-A All-Star Game in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. Schwinden leads the Bisons club in the pitching triple crown with six wins, a 3.07ERA and 81 strikeouts. His 3.07ERA also ranks as the 6th lowest in the International League. Schwinden is the fourth consecutive pitcher to serve as the Bisons All-Star, following LHP Rich Rundles (2008), RHP Nelson Figueroa (2009) and LHP Pat Misch (2010).

CATCHING ON: C RAUL CHAVEZ brings a six-game hit streak into tonight’s game. The veteran has averaged .400 (8-20) with two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored since June 29. Behind the dish, Chavez remains the top catcher in the IL by throwing out 48.9% of would-be base stealers (23 of 47). The next closest is Syracuse’s Jesus Flores at 40.5%.

BISONS BITS: Buffalo’s two hits in last night’s shutout loss was their fewest since getting blanked on one hit on June 8, 2010 in Durham (7-0 loss)…Schwinden is the fourth consecutive pitcher to serve as the Bisons All-Star, following LHP Rich Rundles (2008), RHP Nelson Figueroa (2009) and LHP Pat Misch (2010)…The Bisons are 2-3 in games after they’ve been shutout this season.

METS UPDATE: The Mets (46-44) lost to the Giants last night by a 3-1 score. New York had four doubles and no other hits on Saturday. Former Bisons INF DANIEL MURPHY drove home the Mets’ lone run. New York closes out its first half with an 8:05 p.m. first pitch in San Francisco. RHP MIKE PELFREY will start for the Mets.

Neither starting pitcher allowed an earned run, but some defensive follies pushed the Red Sox to a 2-0 win over the Bisons at Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium Saturday night.

In the second, right fielder Fernando Martinez’ error, dropping a long fly ball, allowed Nate Spears to reach second and move Hector Luna, who previously doubled, to third.

Southpaw starter Pat Misch appeared to escape the jam, getting a two-out pop up by Alex Valdez, but the Bisons’ infield lost the ball with a gust of wind in the late afternoon sun. Despite the misplay, Valdez was credited with a hit. Luna and Spears scored before Zach Lutz caught Valdez trying to stretch his single to a double.

Aside from the second – where both of his runs were unearned – Misch settled down, pitching 6 1/3 innings, allowing three hits without a walk and five strikeouts. Miguel Batista replaced Misch to finish the seventh in his second appearance with the Bisons.

Misch’s counterpart, righty Tony Pena, shut out the Bisons into the sixth inning, when he left after a Mike Nickeas leadoff walk. On 78 pitches, Pena allowed two hits, walked one and struck out four. Lefty Tommy Hottovy retired the next three batters to maintain the 2-0 lead.

The Bisons’ best chance to climb back in the game came in the seventh, when Valentino Pascucci collided with Pawtucket first basemen Lars Anderson on his missed catch. Martinez moved from second to third on the play, but Pascucci was only awarded first after the error and collision.

Hottovy then capitalized on Buffalo’s misfortune, escaping on an inning-ending double play.

Batista shut out Pawtucket over 1 2/3 innings on two hits, a walk and a strikeout.

The Bisons conclude a weeklong road trip and two-game series with Pawtucket Sunday at 1:05 p.m.

Game Notes: The Bisons drop to 2-5 in the season series with Pawtucket… Only Michael Fisher and Jesus Feliciano collected hits on the night… Major league veteran Batista, 40, made his Buffalo debut July 5 after signing with the Mets that day.

Saturday, July 9, 2011 (6:05 p.m.) – McCoy Stadium
Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (38-51, 5th(-13.5), North)
LHP Pat Misch (3-4, 5.00)

Pawtucket Red Sox (48-41, 2nd(-3.5), North)
TBA

TODAY’S GAME: Tonight, the Buffalo Bisons take on the Pawtucket Red Sox in the first game of a two-game series at McCoy Stadium (6:05 p.m.). The Bisons are 2-2 so far as they come to their third stop on this roadtrip. The Herd split a pair of series in Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The three-day All-Star break will begin Monday after Sunday’s series finale against Pawtucket.

VS. THE RED SOX: The Bisons are 2-4 against the Red Sox this season. The clubs split a four-game series in Buffalo, April 9-12, before the PawSox swept a two-game set at McCoy Stadium, April 16-17. It was exactly two years ago that Buffalo last won a series in Rhode Island. The Bisons collected victories of 3-1 and 1-0 on July 9-10, 2009 at McCoy Stadium.

THE DISCH: LHP PAT MISCH will head to the mound for the 12th time this season. The southpaw allowed just one earned run in six innings in his last outing, July 4 in Syracuse. Misch has been sharp in his last six starts, with a 3-1 record and a 3.49ERA since June 9. In his last 38.2 innings of work, the veteran has posted 25 strikeouts and only 10 walks.

CATCHING ON: C RAUL CHAVEZ brings a six-game hit streak into tonight’s game. The veteran has averaged .400 (8-20) with two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored since June 29. Behind the dish, Chavez remains the top catcher in the IL by throwing out 48.9% of would-be base stealers (23 of 47). The next closest is Syracuse’s Jesus Flores at 40.5%.

ON TRACK: INF ZACH LUTZ has hit in three of four games since returning from the disabled list on July 4 with a .313 (5-16) average and a home run. Lutz has enjoyed Pawtucket pitching this year with five doubles, a home run and a .375 (6-16) average in five games. That equates to a .875 slugging percentage.

BISONS BITS: INF LUIS HERNANDEZ has hit .385 (5-13) with a home run and seven RBI in the four games of this current roadtrip…Bisons’ starting pitchers have posted a 3.03ERA and given up only one home run in seven starts in July (38.2IP). The rotation had a 5.15ERA and allowed 25 home runs in 29 June games…RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN will represent the Bisons in next week’s Triple-A All-Star Game in Salt Lake City.

METS UPDATE: The Mets (46-43) improved to 4-1 on their West Coast trip with a 5-2 win over the Giants. Former Bisons OF ANGEL PAGAN homered and drove in a pair and OF SCOTT HAIRSTON also went deep. The Mets take on the Giants again this afternoon at 4:10 p.m.

Friday, July 8, 2011 (7:05 p.m.) – PNC Field
Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (38-51, 5th(-13.0), North)
RHP Jack Egbert (0-2, 6.00)

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (46-40, T2nd(-3.5), North)
RHP D.J. Mitchell (5-7, 3.45)

TODAY’S GAME: Tonight, the Buffalo Bisons take on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in the final game of a three-game series at PNC Field (7:05 p.m.). The teams have split the first two games of the set, giving the Herd a chance to win its first road series of the season tonight. Buffalo is 2-2 on its current seven-game roadtrip that will end with a pair of games in Pawtucket this weekend.

VS. THE YANKS: The Bisons are 4-5 against the Yankees this season. After losing a three-game set at PNC, April 13-15, the Herd is looking to pick up a series win with a victory tonight. Buffalo earned a series split and a series win in their two visits to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year with a 5-3 record.

STARTING OFF: RHP JACK EGBERT will make his fourth start as a Bison today. The righty allowed two runs on seven hits in 2.2 innings in his last outing, July 3 against Syracuse. Egbert joined the Bisons late in June after spending 191 games on the team’s disabled list. The veteran needed reconstructive surgery on his arm after injuring himself in a 2010 spring exhibition game.

CATCHING ON: C RAUL CHAVEZ brings a six-game hit streak into tonight’s game. The veteran has averaged .400 (8-20) with two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored since June 29. Behind the dish, Chavez remains the top catcher in the IL by throwing out 48.9% of would-be base stealers (23 of 47). The next closest is Syracuse’s Jesus Flores at 40.5%.

F-MART: OF FERNANDO MARTINEZ has hit three home runs in four games against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season. In 18 career games against Yankees pitching, Martinez has hit .304 (24-79) with seven doubles, five home runs, 15RBI and a .582 slugging percentage.

BISONS BITS: INF LUIS HERNANDEZ has hit .385 (5-13) with a home run and seven RBI in the four games of this current roadtrip…Bisons’ starting pitchers have posted a 3.03ERA and given up only one home run in seven starts in July (38.2IP). The rotation had a 5.15ERA and allowed 25 home runs in 29 June games…RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN will represent the Bisons in next week’s Triple-A All-Star Game in Salt Lake City.

METS UPDATE: The Mets (45-43) failed to close out a sweep of the Dodgers with a 6-0 loss in L.A. last night. New York had just six singles, including two each from former Bisons INF DANIEL MURPHY and OF ANGEL PAGAN. The Mets head to San Francisco tonight for a 10:15 p.m. first pitch against the defending champs.

The Bisons dropped the second game of their three-game series with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6-2, when they ran into Yankees starter Ivan Nova recently assigned to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre from the New York Yankees.

The Herd scratched Nova for two-runs in the first-inning but that’s all the damage they could muster. Luis Figueroa leadoff the inning with a strike out but reached first on a wild-pitch, and moved to second base on Nova’s second-wild-pitch of the game.

Figueroa moved to third after tagging on a fly-out, and then scored after Fernando Martinez crushed a homerun into deep right-field. Nova gave up a leadoff double in the second-inning and then settled in for the night retiring the next 13-batters he faced.

After giving up a single in the sixth-inning to break-up his streak Nova continued to dominate the Bisons retiring 20 of the next 22 batters he faced. Nova struck out 10-batters giving up two-runs, six-hits, and one-homerun.

The Yankees tied the game in the second inning after Bisons starter Mark Cohoon gave up leadoff back-to-back doubles and a single. The Yanks scored the winning run in the fourth-inning but not without some controversy.

With one-out Jordan Parraz singled into center-field on a ball that appeared to be caught by Jesus Feliciano. The first-base umpire Craig Barron ruled that Feliciano trapped the ball between his glove and the ground and after a conference with the rest of the umpires awarded Parraz a single.

P.J. Pilittere followed with a double into left-field scoring the speedy Parraz all the way from first, giving the Yanks a, 3-2, lead.

The Herd loaded the bases with Bisons for Valentino Pascucci in the top of the eighth-inning with two-outs but Pascucci struck out stranding three.

The Yanks added three-runs in the eighth inning on an error and two-hits, one being a two-run homerun by Jorge Vazquez taking a, 6-2, lead.

Game Notes: The Mets selected Nick Evans contract and Jon Malo was recalled to the Bisons from Double-A…Mark Cohoon struck out a season high seven-batters, including the first three-batters he faced to start the game…Fernando Martinez hit his seventh homerun of the season and putting up the Bisons only runs of the game.